News: Mavs first team to stop playing national anthem.

This is a valid point.

Why would anyone assume Luke would like to stand on the court when they are singing an anthem not representing his own country?

Yes, he got a job to work in this country but have you seen anyone doing such thing before they will open the buffet or doing an oil change for you?

 

Mass displays of blind patriotism in day-to-day life are historically associated with the shittiest, most evil governments. I'd go to more games if they didn't have that aspect. Last Astros game i went to, the anthem wasn't enough, they had to scream PATRIOTISM with "america the beautiful" to boot. It's amazing to me that people take this for granted, what's next, the national anthem a the beginning of movies like Modhi's India? Wish Cuban hadn't immediately backed down.

 

I get what you’re saying. But I don’t understand the relevance point. When is it ever relevant? Before charging into battle? At the olympics? So are those the only times it should be played?

I see it more as a tradition.

 

I think it should be saved for the beginning of big games, all-star, finals etc. Looking back at saying the pledge of allegiance daily in public schools it seemed like a waste of time that could have been spent on something else. If you look at the history of the national anthem being played before sporting events, it was not always played, it was used to amp up the crowd during times of war and bring people together. Seems like it is now having the opposite effect.

 

i took offense when kids next to me would say "...to the flag of the united states of mexico..." in school. i mean... wat? i wasn't aware mexico had states. thought they did provinces.

 

I always thought it was a pretty cool tradition. I looked at it as paying respect to my elders that served in the world wars.

Served as a reminder of how lucky I am to be able to relax, watch a basketball game and eat nachos, and not be face down in the mud in Vietnam.

 

Queue being labelled as a racist in 3... 2...

 

So it's the team's decision? I've always thought it's the league's rule.

 

The anthem is so corny lol

 

Oh man I forgot that you guys also do the pledge of allegiance at the start of a school day. I really do not like those things, I do not see the point in these forced displays of "patriotism". Furthermore it does not achieve anything. You think that because people are forced to pledge their allegiance every morning that they will be more patriotic, of course not it is a hollow ritual.

I am not the most patriotic person. As in, I am not especially proud of my country, I am happy with many things in my country and unhappy with others. Overall I love living here and would probably not move away from here. But it is not like I am proud of being a Dutchmen. If I was born 200 km to the east I would have been German. Would that be so different, probably not. I also do not value the life of a Dutchmen more than a life from someone from another country. I really do not care for nationalism. IMHO it is a stupid tribal idea that does not help in general.

I remember walking in Thailand and being surprised with how many flags I saw hanging everywhere. I am not used to this nationalism. We hang flags here on specific holidays (Freedom day, remembrance day), but when I say we I do not mean me, as I do not even own a Dutch flag). For me the only time when I care about nationalism is during sports. I cheer for the Dutch national teams in all sports. When I hear our national Anthem before a soccer game between the Netherlands and Germany I love the anthem. Or when a Dutchmen won a medal in the Olympics I love to see the flag raised.

That all being said I do not care for these display of nationalism, but if others love them I have no problem with them participating in it. If a team wants to play the anthem great, if not also great, why would the league force teams to do it? If people want to pledge their allegiance every morning they can do it. just do not ask me to join. The same goes for praying before dinner. When my in-laws want to pray before dinner I will be quit, but I will not close my eyes and join the prayer. This is how I think it should be. If a person wants to join a certain ritual, they can, when they do not want to join they should be able to choose not to.

 

is it time yet to modernize the national anthem? it's so last century

 

FIFY

 

Nothing says "we love freedom" more than forcing you to play the freedom song while staring at the freedom flag.

 

He would be one of the better presidents, I hope he runs and wins.

 

Too late. Trump killed it for all celebrities and reality TV stars that want to be president. Now we will never experience president Kanye West singing at his own inauguration.

 

Growing up I always felt that GenX/Millenials would start to question the mass-patriotism culture that was instilled after WW1 and WW2 to the boomers as children.

But I have very mixed feelings about it. Singing the anthem before sports games has always felt corny to me. Kneeling for the anthem never struck me as disrespectful. Kneeling is typically a sign of respect. Rituals for the sake of tradition are awkward if no one can explain their meaning.

At the same time, these are tough times and there's a lot of sadness, confusion and mistrust. Knowing that we have some symbols that we can unite around has some power. Liberals often misunderstand conservative motivations to have symbols and traditions. In a world of chaos and divisiveness and internet cults, we need the ability to rally together. As a moderate who hated Trump and the populist right-wing culture he has created, I'm also concerned about an inevitable left-wing pendulum swing that sees America's history as evil.

As in all things, let's shine a light on the evil and banish it, but let's not condemn the good and demonize and throw out the whole history with it. America was a great experiment and we should embrace our ability to take the reigns of the experiment; not to just be reactionary and change everything for the sake of change. Let's be an America that celebrates and elevates the black man, the woman, the LGBT, but not an America that hates itself and feels catharsis in burning everything down.

So I struggled to answer the poll question (and everyone is, currently 33%/33%/33%) but I chose it doesn't matter. Because in the end singing an anthem doesn't matter, but how we view our future and whether we can actually work together for it is what matters. While we celebrate being different and progressive, we still need some visible cues that we have commonalities and that we can recognize them.

 

Ballmer or Gates would be fun presidents.

 

He has crazy Alexandra Daddario eyes.